Meeting Minutes: Committee on Arts and Sciences
Minutes of Meeting
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia
November 16th and 17th, 2000
Attending:
Wyatt Anderson, Curtis Bailey, Richard Barbe, Kent Barefield, Bobbie Blake, David Blumenfeld, Ronnie Booth, Raymond Chambers, Bill Chappell, Arthur Cleveland, Lennet Daigle, Tom Fox, Norma Givens, Tim Goodman, Henry Harris, Jason Horn, Elizabeth House, John Hutcheson, Otis Johnson, Mary Mitchell Jones, Ulf Kirchdorfer, John Kohler, Sue Leslie, Joan Lord, Grace Martin, Mike Murhpy, Linda Noble, Bernie Patterson, Laurence Peterson (presiding), Ronald Swofford, Ellis Sykes, Edward Vizzini, Dorothy Zinsmeister
Welcome:
Dr. Peterson opened the meeting at 1:00 PM, thanked the attendees for joining us in Atlanta and participating in the meeting, and thanked Dr. Kent Barefield for hosting the meeting. Dr. Robert McMath, Vice Provost and VPAA for Arts & Sciences at Georgia Tech welcomed the committee to the Georgia Tech campus and thanked all of the participants for coming. After the members introduced themselves, Dr. Art Cleveland kindly agreed to take minutes of the meeting.
Program:
Dr. Peterson introduced the first speaker, Dr. Bob Haney of Georgia Southern University who presented "Comprehensive Program Reviews: History, Focus and Implementation". Dr. Haney indicated the goals of Comprehensive Program Reviews were program improvement, institutional effectiveness and strategic planning. The annual reporting requirement (2pp maximum) is only for programs reviewed or flagged for action items. He indicated our principal challenges would involve obsolete or low-enrollment programs. The following key dates were highlighted:
04/30/01 - Submit Plans, Process and list of Programs for First Cycle
08/15/01 - Begin First Cycle of Reviews
06/30/02 - Report on Programs Reviewed
Dr. Zinsmeister provided an update on system priorities and activities. She discussed the recent BOR meeting where Admission and Retention issues were highlighted and indicated the USG had a 77% freshman to sophomore retention rate. As a result of higher SAT scores, Dorothy indicated faculty across the system have commented on the higher quality of student in their classrooms and this may also be producing higher retention rates. She briefly discussed Benchmarking activities, the role of A&S deans on-going involvement in Education and Teacher Preparation and led a discussion of A&S/COE relations in teacher preparation. ECore was discussed in the context of tuition, course content and course development. Some suggest that eCore may need to provide both faculty and universities with greater incentives to ensure future participation in the program. Also, system-wide concern was expressed lengthening graduation rates as a result of the low number of credit hours taken by students. These enrollment patterns are seemingly related to Hope Scholarship retention. Dorothy mentioned that the Administrative Workshops to be hosted by the BOR would discuss Comprehensive Program Reviews and it was suggested that they also include a session on New Program Proposals.
Dr. Paul Ohme, Director of the Center for Education in Science, Mathematics and Computing (CEISMC) gave a very informative presentation of their program entitled "Georgia Industrial Fellowship for Teachers". In this program, secondary school science and math teachers are paid $625/week to work in industry. However, they can also work in academic laboratories within the University System and Dr. Ohme further indicated that NSF grant proposals which included $10,000 for a GIFT teacher would be very favorable received. Such proposals could be an add-on (supplemental) to the amount of money normally funded by a particular program since the funding came from a different NSF source.
Dr. Richard Sutton, Director of International Programs and Services, highlighted the "Regents' International Initiatives"
On Friday, three very successful Distance Learning Initiatives were presented by Dr. Art Cleveland of Columbus State University (Delivery and Marketing of a M.S. DL Program in Computer Science), Dr. Andy Smith of Georgia Tech (Georgia Distance Learning Partnership in Gerontology: Teaching the Psychology of Aging) and Dr. Jim Wolfgang of Georgia College and State University (Complexities of Delivering a DL Masters of Public Administration aboard an Aircraft Carrier), respectively. Each of these programs serve a unique niche and need within the state. The big message that came through was that each program employed a variety of technologies and media (hybrid approach) to deliver the curriculum and this factor appeared to be a key reason for the success of each.
The following individuals were nominated, seconded and approved unanimously by the attendees to serve the Committee for the coming year in the indicated capacity:
Chair-Elect for 2002 - Dr. Tom Fox, North Georgia College & State University Representatives to Executive Committee:
Category A - Dr. Wyatt Anderson (University of Georgia)
Category B - Dr. Linda Noble (Kennesaw State University)
Category C - Dr. Tim Goodman (East Georgia College)
Open discussion followed in the following areas: Entry level salaries in Information Technology positions, Summer Salary Basis, Summer Term length, Maymester issues, faculty workload and Academic Advisory Committee on Arts & Sciences meeting format. There appeared to be general agreement that one meeting per academic year was sufficient and that Fall Semester was preferred.
Thanks and appreciation was expressed to Dr. Kent Barefield and the secretarial staff within the Dean of Sciences Office at Georgia Tech for making this a successful meeting.
The meeting was adjourned at 11:30 AM.
Respectfully submitted by Art Cleveland and Larry Peterson 12/11/2000